Kamagasaki: A Trip into the Uncomfortable

Kamagasaki is a section of Osaka that is not normally part of most people’s image of Japan. It is the largest slum, or economically depressed community in all of the country. There are more than 25,000 men in the low income bracket, which means that they are either homeless, or are living in low income housing. The only work that is available is day labor. Each day between 4:30 and 7:30 in the morning vans and trucks file into a labor assistance facility called Airin, and seek capable workers for mainly manual labor. On average, they offer approximately 2,700 jobs, a small number in comparison to the people in need. The employers post job descriptions and pay scales for the job. In some cases the employer will hire a recruiter to entice young strong workers. In those situations, the recruiter acquires a percentage of the worker’s pay, which is normally between 10,000 and 16,000 yen per day. In the US that would be considered sufficient wages to rise out of poverty, but with the high cost of living, inconsistent work, and overpriced deposits for housing in Japan that amount makes gaining economic status extremely difficult.
A major problem for the residents of Kamagasaki is the increasing aging population in Japan. The majority of the men living in the community are in their middle age or older. This makes it difficult to get a job requiring intensive physical labor. On top of that, not getting work lowers moral, which many resort to heavy drinking. Alcoholism contributes further to the difficulty of acquiring work because employers do not want workers who cannot perform in a satisfactory manner due to shaking, blurred vision, or nausea. On the second floor of the Airin building there were hundreds of men sleeping on the concrete in the late morning of a weekday with the smell of sweat and alcohol wafting through the air.
There were a few social programs committed to helping these men. One large nonprofit organization the group visited was committed to assisting the unemployed getting back on their feet. This organization provided meals, tight sleeping quarters, toilets, and shower facilities. They even offered 270 jobs a day in which workers maintain the upkeep of the community by sweeping, picking trash, and separating recyclables. They provided those jobs with the intent of helping those residents who could not acquire work with the day laborers. Most of these men had handicaps, were past middle-aged, or had problems with alcoholism. They received over 3,000 applications for these 270 jobs. In order to compensate, they put employees on a ten-day rotation, or in other words they work once every ten days. The pay for that work was 5,600 yen per day, a severely inadequate amount if that was the only work for the men. Unfortunately, the NPO was offering everything they could within their budget.
The affordable health facilities for the unemployed were inadequate as well. The one free hospital could hold only 130 patients. The need for more healthcare was so great that NPO’s provided special free housing for injured or ill residents. The shortage of healthcare is not due to too few hospitals, but to the discrimination and highly expensive costs at other facilities. On average, one night in a hospital costs over 5,000 yen, and when the administration or doctors find out where the patients are from the care ends up being half-assed, to put it bluntly.
Attending an East Asian Studies field trip in this community consisted of traveling from one social help organization to another while passing rickety venders, trash, offensive scents of urine, homely old men lingering in the street, and many other sights unthought-of in Japan. The guides, Mami-san and Brian Cloud, asked that the students not take pictures, or stare at the residents, but even after living in India for nine months where poverty, suffering, and deformities were prevalent it was a difficult task not to gawk. Even though there was such an obvious distinction between the American students wondering through the streets with wide open eyes of fear and discomfort and the hordes of unemployed men living their normal lives there was not a single incident of confrontation, or even negative vibes. The students were accepted with mainly uninterested notice except for a bare few who said hello, or, “where are you from?”
The last organization visited was an after-school program for underprivileged or learning disabled children. This place, like many other social work facilities in the community, was started by a Christian in the early sixties. The current director, Mami-san, was the wonderful woman who guided the class through the maze of streets, welfare facilities, and cardboard kiosks. She dedicated her work to the welfare of underprivileged children in her community. The mission with this program is to give those children a safe place to play, and socialize with adults and other children. She believed that a major problem with the treatment of the lower social classes, and disabled peoples in Japan was that they were separated from the larger community, and considered outcasts. That type of separation also creates difficulties for the underprivileged to interact with others in life. She provided that safe environment to teach people how to socialize with each other with acceptance and grace. It was truly beautiful to see someone with such an honorable and compassionate dream.
The last section of the expedition consisted of exploring the red-light district that was adjacent to Kamagasaki. This was perhaps the most dehumanizing aspect of the trip because of the displayed women selling their bodies to desperate men. Each stall had two women sitting, and waiting for the next customer, one scantily clad behind bright neon spotlights, and the other older with shrewd eyes staring the young western men down as they passed. It was one large city block lined with stall after stall advertising in kanji, “Beautiful Princess” and “Precious Jewel”. The group was told that until approximately one hundred years ago the area was surrounded by a twenty-foot wall imprisoning the young women indebted to the brothel owners, for one reason or another. There was still evidence of the wall, but there were stairs on one side, and an open gate on the other.
To say the least, the trip was a view of desperate situations that exist even in a strong economic country like Japan. It was a chance for the students to see suffering first hand, smell the offensive odor of stale urine, come into contact with social programs that work on the “getting your hands dirty” level, and finally realize the humanness and similarities of all people. These are folks that have come into bad times, but their situation should not be dealt with by thinking of their otherness. Humans need to feel the responsibility for each other and the world’s sustainability.